een

I took this picture on Monday toward the beginning of my ~7 mile walk around Amsterdam. I'm still getting settled (for one, I haven't gotten a bicycle yet, although I've now been here for a week).

On this particular day I (thought I) had time to kill in the morning, so I went to the Rijksmusem. But Sunday night someone threw acid on a painting in there, so the museum was closed for the morning. I instead went to the Van Gogh museum, which was packed with people who had been confronted with the same dilemma. So then I walked around for a while, got lunch, and eventually meandered back to the apartment, several miles away. Anyway, this was a cool-looking curvy street, right next to... oh, some canal. (Perhaps it's good that I don't have a bike yet, because I would just get lost faster.)

This photo is not a super example, but it is very cute how much attention people give to their, like, 3 inches of gardening space in front of their buildings--lots of rose bushes and such tied vertically. And yes, people do sweep the sidewalks in front of their doors.

One amusing detail in houses here: they all have those beams sticking out at the top. Those beams have hooks on them. They're for moving furniture in! (They attach ropes and pulleys... it's very impressive.)